35,000MW to be added to power system in the next eight years

ISLAMABAD: The government informed National Assembly that 35,000 megawatt electricity will be added to national grid during the next three to eight years, which will help provide cheap electricity to consumers.

Responding to a call attention notice in the House, Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah said that currently work on 35 mega hydel projects was underway, which will be completed during the next three to eight years. Once completed, he said that the projects would supply electricity at the rate of Rs 5 per unit to consumers.

He also told the House that electricity generation from Thar Coal would start during next two years, adding that work on the project was underway on fast track basis.

To a question, the minister said that electricity tariff have gone up due to heavy reliance on Thermal power generation and the exploitation of indigenous resources including hydel, gas and coal will help bring down its prices.

He said that the ratio of thermal and hydel power generation had been gone down from 50 to 30 percent in 1985 due to negligence of governments of those times. Updating the House on power charges from various sources, he said that electricity produced through hydel source was available at Rs 1.1 per unit, from natural gas it was available at Rs 5.5 per unit whereas from thermal power it was available at Rs 15.1 per unit.

The minister further informed the House that up to 300 million cubic feet gas reserves have been discovered in Kunar and 150 million cubit feet gas would be extracted soon from the reservoir.

To the concerns of the parliamentarians, he said that the proposal to increase the power tariff during peak hours in the evening was under consideration as part of efforts to conserve energy. He, however, clarified that this will not be applicable on the lifeline consumers.

The call attention notice was moved by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmakers including Mohammad Barjees Tahir, Naseer Bhutta, Hanif Abbasi and others regarding double tariff of electricity particularly in the evening hours.

They termed the move as unjustifiable saying that on one hand the people were in great troubles due to the price hike while on the other they were subjected to double tariff. They pointed out that the people would have to pay Rs 19 per unit at the peak evening hours, which they termed as unjustifiable to be charged from the poor masses.

Meanwhile, responding to a point of order regarding the poor performance of Pakistan International Airline (PIA), Khursheed Shah said that the management of national flag- carrier has decided to get new aircraft on lease. Under the plan, he said that 11 new aircraft would be inducted into the PIA fleet by March next year, which will help improve its efficiency. The PIA, he said, was paying Rs 18 billion per annum as interest.

Meanwhile, the House also will begin debate on gas load shedding across the country on an adjournment motion admitted by the House. The motion was moved by PML-N's Chaudhary Barjees Tahir and the government did not oppose it.